February 2014: The associations above represent the majority of users, from SMEs to multinationals, of the European trade mark systems. As demonstrated by the Observatory’s recent study on the contribution of IPRs to the EU economy, growth and jobs, trade mark-intensive industries play a major role in producing jobs and value in the EU economy: they account for 21% of all jobs and for 34% of EU GDP. While the current system has proved to be a success, the associations mentioned above do appreciate the efforts that both the Parliament and the Commission are making to ensure that it is also capable of meeting the needs of its users in the future. This joint-paper aims to highlight some issues that are of serious concern to European trade mark owners.